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Title: A Return to Cooking
ISBN: 1579651879
Author:
Eric Ripert
Michael Ruhlman
Publicate Date: 2002-11-04
Publish: 2002-11-04
List Price: $50.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $140.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $29.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: I expect more from one of the world best chef
am kind of disappointed when I paid over 70 dollars to get this book. I should have ordered books written by some European Master chefs from oversea source. Eric Ripert is no doubt one of the best in business. If you have eaten in his restaurant, Le Bernadin, you will completely agree with me. I dined there several times. It is another blockbuster team up (Rhulman and Ripert). Lately, Rhulman's books completely failed my expectation. It become more marketing driven. And this book certainly is one of them. Big book, lots of pictures. But it is just background picture of their vacation or some cherry tomatoes or unneccessary pictures of Ruhlman in cool looking sun glasses or Eric Ripert on the beach. It reminds me of a cookbook written by Mr.Town and Country's Geoffrey Zakarian. It shows his pictures more than anything.
This should be a kind of book that is packed with his jack of all trade technique. Unlike European chef, their books are stunning and full of cooking technique. If you are a home cook, you may like the book. But I found it as overrated as Gray Kuntz's Elements of Taste which is sold nearly 100 dollars. And I found people who buy them are actually culnary students and professional cooks like me. It is a such a shame, both of them are one of my favorite chefs.
I would suggest if any of you who plan to buy these two books, wait until they reprint second edition or paperback version. It is not worth this hefty price and lofty hype.
If you want good home/restaurant cooking book, buy well written Think like chef (Tom Collichio) or else. Small book, well written, simple ingredients, and cheap to find. Save your money and borrow it from Library and see it yourself. Wanna pay this much? Go to Amazon.fr or Amazon.uk They sell much much better cookbook written by European master chefs. Trust me
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2: Woody''s Books: Unreliable vendor
I ordered this book on Dec. 6th for a Christmas gift. Apparently the book was not in stock, they never told me that... only that I would be delivered within 2 weeks, then without any notice at all they changed the delivery date to Jan 6th, which I only found out by visiting amazon.com to find out where my book is.
The book eventually arrived, too late for Christmas. After giving me really bad service, with NO communication at all, woody's has now contacted me multiple times to get me to remove negative reviews. Forget it, Woody. You give bad, unreliable service you get bad reviews.
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3: It's still a "chef's" book, but not inaccessibly so. Best for seafood.
This may be Ripert's return to the kitchen (ie., this is arguably not "restaurant" food), but it's still demanding of money, time, and skill (probably in that order). I say money and time first because he uses top-notch and/or esoteric ingredients, which will require some investment and shopping (eg: live pibales: I never heard of them anywhere else before or since. Even the book says they are very difficult to find: Ripert special orders them from a supplier for $65 a pound. No substitution is mentioned, and the description of them is too limited to make a guess at an acceptable sub. Perhaps there simply is none...). But that's to be expected from any top-tier chef's book, so it's certainly no reason to knock this down.
I'll leave it as established that the recipes are delicious and mouth-watering, etc., and intend to focus this review on who might consider this cookbook and whether or not I'd recommend it.
Admittedly, I spent more time gazing longingly at this book than cooking from it. But, when I have cooked from it, I have always learned something about technique or ingredients, and for that, I rate this book 5 starts. The expense and general highly-demanding nature are irrelevant to rating, as I see it, because you can tell what you're getting into when you consider any book with this many artists and this size of pages involved.
Like any chef's book, you have to be willing to take what you can use: if you can't commit yourself to preparing all the elaborate components of a dish, try making the sauce, or using the cooking method. I've learned a lot of new sauces here, and I look to this almost every time I have a piece of fish in the fridge.
To me, the most interesting part of his grand project is how he brings his background to bear on the different cuisines and traditions of the location (my favorite chapter is in Puerto Rice). The flavor combinations alone are eye-opening, and satisfyingly so.
The artwork, photography, and other writings are, well, there, and how much you like them is up to your own taste. In that respect, you can approximate the book by its cover. I really like the paintings, and how they look like woodcuts, but sometimes the personalities can teeter on the precious or smug side (Though who can blame them: take a year off to paint/cook/eat and travel? I'd feel pretty special too.). I actually do not think I would want to have been part of this particular entourage.
I would most strongly recommend this to anyone who wanted to expand his/her repertoire of fish and seafood recipes: you will find ideas here that are not duplicated elsewhere, and seafood is why Ripert is famous.
If fish/seafood are not strong points of interest, but you are generally a good, well-budgeted and well-supplied cook, you'll probably enjoy this, but I wouldn't say it's an essential addition to your working library.
If you don't cook fish or seafood, I would buy something else.
Also, if you don't live near good, extensively stocked grocery stores (especially fish markets and butcher's who can supply you with things like veal cheeks), I don't think this would have much value as a usable cookbook. Unlike game or foie gras, fish doesn't seem like a strong mail-order candidate. Once you deduct recipes requiring specialty items, you're left with things ike "Figs Wrapped in Bacon" (and not in some ingenious Thomas Keller way; it's quite straightforward).
Obviously, if you're a novice cook, or looking for fast/simple/cheap recipes, you're probably not even viewing this item. In case you are, I recommend you immediately look elsewhere and avoid this book entirely.
Nonetheless, even if you're eating through a feeding tube, or never intend to cook a single thing in your life, but you really like looking at pictures of food, or reading about how people feel about food, you'll probably love this. As an attractive coffee table/daydream cookbook, it's one of the best.
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4: excellent coffee table book, yet practical
The book is beautiful: layout, photography, the food itself. As others have noted, the recipes are very good for a home cook: impressive, but not so complex as to deter a dedicated cook.Why 4 and not 5 stars? Because I think Ruhlman is merely an average writer. He spends too much time cozying up to M. Ripert. In browsing the book, I found several grammar errors (minor irritance, but in a book of this quality, I find disappointing). Ruhlman is no Reichl or Grimes -- but I think he tries to be. I think Ruhlman picks fascinating topics (I enjoyed Soul of a Chef immensely); it's just that, for me, his writing is a distraction from the content.
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5: Cooking and Cooksbooks as Art
what can I say, this is simply the most beautiful
cookbook that I have ever come accross. What pictures
and paintings. A real work of art and love. Almost to beautiful to want
to cook out of it and risk to splatter food on it. Haven't tried any of the recipies yet, but can't wait and
will update this review as soon as I have tried a few of them.
But most of them look really surprisingly simple and
soooo delicious and very often surprising!!!! A definite must have for any cooking lover
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